Advice on car purchase

LGeerthytime on 09/04/2019 - 17:53

Good evening all,

Looking to upgrade from my rusty 02' Mitsubishi. Will be driving around town/ will have to drive 30min to work for 20 weeks later in the year.

Given my troubles with my older vehicle, am hoping for something newer and that will last me for the coming future (not looking to resell later).

Not particularly into cars/driving, as long as it gets me from A to B and is economical + safe, I'm a happy lad.

Have narrowed my search down to cars from approx 2013 onwards, less than $12000 and less than 80 000 kms. Thinking small to medium (VW Polo/golf, Corolla, i20/30/elantra, cerato, Mazda 3, civic etc).

Have come across 2 options that seem reasonable.
2015 VW polo 81TSI 71 000 kms, 2015 elantra 40 000kms.
Polo - friends and family have given great reviews, very fuel efficient, good safety ratings
Cons - servicing costs
Elantra - cheaper servicing costs lower kms.
Con - less fuel efficient
Both similarly processed around $11 000 AUD (pre -haggle).
Looking for any personal experience/advice.

Automotive Car

Comments

  • Hybroid on 09/04/2019 - 18:08
    +6

    Corolla or Mazda 3 should be main options.

    • npc on 09/04/2019 - 20:32

      Mazda 3 should come with complimentary ear plugs, nice car otherwise.

  • spackbace on 09/04/2019 - 18:10
    +1

    Could be worth a look

    These struggled to get in the market, against Camry and it's 0% special. So resale has taken a nose dive and now they're decent value.

    Whatever you do, make sure you do a PPSR given the QLD floods etc.

    • ESEMCE on 09/04/2019 - 18:24
      +3

      Yeah, nah..

      • spackbace on 09/04/2019 - 18:46
        +1

        Besides shit resale I've never heard anything bad about the Malibu actually, unless you wanna enlighten me otherwise?

        • ESEMCE on 09/04/2019 - 19:37
          +3

          Cause it's you, I'll take your word for it.
          Is just one of those "Daewoo rebadged as Holden " generation that overall have a bad reputation.

          • spackbace on 09/04/2019 - 19:40
            +1

            @ESEMCE: Lol I genuinely haven't heard anything wrong with them, and actually thought they were a bit different.
            The blue interior light across the dash is cool, and the 'Chevy' style tail lights are different (the front end is bland as hell however).
            And it's not far off size from a Commodore.

            1 review out of 10 of 1 star, which is rare for a Holden (if someone has issues, they sing it from the rooftops), and a search for "Malibu isses" or similar actually doesn't come up with much besides a couple of recalls.

    • brendanm on 10/04/2019 - 16:22

      Surely that price is a joke? Overpriced by about $13k

  • ESEMCE on 09/04/2019 - 18:24
    +2

    Two very different cars there!
    One a compact hatch, the other a small to mid size Sedan.
    Personally I've got a heavy tilt toward Japanese or Korean models, they just seem to continually kick goals in long term reliability and low running costs. Euro's just aren't designed to cope with Australian conditions, or maybe their build quality reputation isn't all it's cracked up to be.

    Note that the VW REQUIRES Premium fuel… so that takes out a big chunk of its fuel economy advantage.
    And if you're looking at the Auto, note that it's the historically problematic DSG. Sure, they may have fixed the problems in newer models, but will those same problems rear up with age?

    • Geerthytime on 09/04/2019 - 22:52

      Yeah that seems to be the general vibe of what I've come across. Will steer clear of the polo, not in a rush so may continue to weight up my options. Cheers for the advice.

  • oscargamer on 09/04/2019 - 18:34
    +1

    From your choice of 2, get the Hyundai.

  • Some Human on 09/04/2019 - 20:15
    +2

    Corolla, always corolla.

  • crentist on 09/04/2019 - 20:23
    +3

    If you don't really care about cars and want something long term, can't really go wrong with a Toyota or Mazda or similar Japanese (I've heard Mitsubishi is not as good)

    I used to work for a guy who had a Toyota Echo which hadn't seen a mechanic in over 10 years, he just topped up the oil now and then. I borrowed it for a few months, still ran fine.
    Soon after I picked up the same model, 15 years old with 150k km and no service book, for around $3k and it had no issues in the couple years before I upgraded.
    A mechanic friend told me the Echos are one of the only cars he trusts, because everything else breaks down all the time. Also they are chain driven, which means no costly service at 100k km.

    Later I got a similarly old Mazda mx-5, which was fun and still running well.
    More recently the gf got an old Japanese car too, because she's come around on the reliability of these older cars.

    Before that she had a 2-3year old VW Golf which was awesome to drive but suffered their common gear problems, which would have been expensive to fix uf not for warranty.
    And before that another <10yo Euro which also had gear troubles and we basically dumped to avoid huge repair costs.

    So 4x ~15year old Japanese cars that got by with barely even regular servicing, and 2 much newer Euros with expensive issues.
    Any car purchase I'll ever make will be weighed against a $3k Echo.

    Get whatever Corolla is in your budget

  • altomic on 09/04/2019 - 22:30

    Corolla, i20/30/elantra, cerato, Mazda 3, civic

    those are all decent cars

    kia rio is a decent little car.

    I'd be tempted with this 2002 kia for $3,200 with 45,000kms

    • RockyRaccoon on 10/04/2019 - 02:35

      Considering it’s 10 years outside their target, I don’t think you will have the op worried you might gazump them in their car hunt

  • [Deactivated] on 09/04/2019 - 23:12
    +1

    Don't do the vw thing. Google vw dsg issues

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